Chapter 34: No reading, only laundry
After breakfast, the adults in the family picked up their farm tools and headed out to work in the fields, leaving the children at home to do some housework within their abilities.
But today was a little different. Gu Bailu and Gu Zhigeng were asked to attend class together.
"Second sister, I don't want to study." Gu Zhigeng said with a look of resistance.
"Second sister, I don't want to study either." Gu Bailu was also reluctant.
"Why?" Gu Jiayue had tried to persuade them for a long time yesterday, but the two little sisters preferred to work in the fields rather than study with her. In desperation, she had no choice but to let them sit in on the class under the eaves. She had thought that after a night, they would discover the joy of studying, but to her surprise, they still refused today.
"Because we are girls, it is useless for us to read more books. When we get married in the future, what we have learned from studying can neither help me with housework nor earn money to support the family. It is better to spend more time embroidering a few handkerchiefs." Although Gu Zhigeng is young, he has his own opinions.
"Who says you can't make money by studying? Once you learn to write, you can help people write couplets and letters in the future. Even if you don't do these, you can still teach your children yourself in the future. Wouldn't that save a lot of money?" Gu Jiayue said helplessly. Although it was a bit strange to discuss marriage and parenting with a ten-year-old child, in ancient times, a ten-year-old child was considered half an adult.
"But girls are not as smart as boys, so I'm afraid they can't learn those things. It's also a waste of time to embroider the handkerchief." Gu Bailu also expressed her concerns.
Gu Jiayue took the hands of her two sisters and said softly, "Don't talk nonsense! How can intelligence be determined by gender? I am also a woman. Don't you think I am not smart?"
The two younger sisters quickly shook their heads. After spending the past few days together, they felt that their second elder sister was the smartest person in the entire Taohua Village. Not only could she draw beautiful patterns, but she could also tell them many stories they had never heard of before, and she could also read the Four Books and Five Classics that only men could learn.
"But grandma asked me to wash clothes before she left, and I still have work to do." Gu Bailu had already accepted Gu Jiayue's theory in his heart, but when he thought of Grandma Gu's instructions, he still firmly refused.
"Yes, yes, I still have to sweep the floor." Gu Zhigeng agreed.
Gu Jiayue felt that these were nothing to be afraid of. She waved her hand and called Gu Yuhe and Gu Yuchuan, who were catching insects in the corner.
Looking at the four Gu siblings and Hua Chao standing in front of her, Gu Jiayue said, "From now on, you are my students. The first thing to do every day is to study. Let's study for 25 minutes first, and then do the housework."
How can a child in his teens not learn to read and write?
Gu Jiayue's attitude was too firm. Although Gu Zhigeng and her sister were still reluctant, they did not dare to refuse. They could only stand in the yard like Gu Yuhe.
Gu Jiayue nodded in satisfaction, took out the bamboo slips she had used in class yesterday and said, "Now, let's review what we learned yesterday."
When Goudan arrived, he saw the Gu family's brothers and sisters standing in a row in the yard according to their height, with their hands behind their backs, reciting the "Three Character Classic" in unison.
He hurried over, stood beside Gu Yuhe, and read aloud with everyone.
After reciting the "Three Character Classic" learned yesterday three times, Gu Jiayue took out a sand table and placed it on the table, asking the students to come forward one by one to take dictation.
We learned six characters yesterday, and Gu Jiayue selected four of them for everyone to dictate.
As a result, Goudan wrote all the characters correctly, Gu Yuhe made two mistakes, and the character that Gu Zhigeng and Gu Bailu wrote best was "人".
"You can even write the word '本' wrong?" Gu Jiayue said as she looked at the word Gu Yuhe had written wrong.
Gu Yuhe lowered his head and remained silent.
Gu Jiayue also understood that she couldn't rush things, so she said, "After class, copy each wrong word twenty times."
Finally, it was Gu Yuchuan's turn. His eyes were clear and innocent, revealing a hint of ignorance as he wrote the four characters Gu Jiayue had requested on the sand table. His handwriting wasn't particularly beautiful, but the strokes were neat and regular, showing signs of having learned it before.
"Second brother, are you really a fool?" This is obviously a child prodigy!
Gu Yuchuan tilted his head, a little angry. "You are the fool!"
Mother said that he is not a fool, he just hasn't grown up yet.
This sister is so mean, she actually called him a fool. Humph, I will never play with her again!
Gu Jiayue was a little embarrassed and touched her nose with her hand: "I'm sorry, second brother, I didn't mean to scold you." She was just too surprised.
"Hmph!" Gu Yuchuan turned his head away angrily, deciding to ignore his second sister no longer.
"I'm sorry, second brother. This is an apology to you. Please forgive me." Gu Jiayue had no choice but to take out the candy.
Sure enough, the candy had a magical effect on Gu Yuchuan. He took the candy and immediately smiled brightly at Gu Jiayue.
Then he remembered something and pointed at the sand table and said, "I'm done, sugar!"
He didn't forget what his sister said yesterday: there would be rewards for reading and writing.
Gu Jiayue looked at him and sighed inwardly: He's really clever. Even if a genius becomes a fool, he's still a smart fool.
She had no choice but to give Gu Yuchuan another candy.
Seeing this, Gu Yuhe was envious and thought to himself, "I wish I could be like my second brother." But he also knew that his performance was poor. His second brother could write four characters correctly, but he could only write two. It was really embarrassing.
He secretly made up his mind to study hard today and strive to surpass his second brother! "Second sister, let's start studying today."
Gu Jiayue took out four candies from the candy bag and said, "Goudan, you did very well. You've completely mastered and memorized everything you learned yesterday. This is your reward. Zhigeng and Bailu, even though you didn't study seriously yesterday, you were able to write a single character. That's pretty good and very smart. I'll give you each a candy as well. Keep up the good work. Huachao is also great. It seems you haven't forgotten anything you learned before."
Goudan took the candy, carefully put it in his pocket, and said with a smile: "Thank you for the compliment, Master. I will definitely continue to work hard."
Gu Bailu and Gu Zhigeng were surprised and delighted. They didn't expect that they, who performed the worst, could also get a reward.
Just now they were full of frustration, thinking that what the ancients said was true, women were indeed not as smart as men, and they were not even as smart as their second brother who was a little stupid.
But my second sister said they were like this because they didn't study seriously. Thinking about it carefully, it was true. They were just listening in under the eaves yesterday. If they studied seriously, they would definitely be better than Gu Yuhe.
Hua Chao held the candy, her eyes full of joy.
Recalling the time when she accompanied the young lady to school in the Marquis's Mansion, she always could not remember what the teacher taught. The maids who accompanied her to study all laughed at her, saying that she was not worthy of being the young lady's companion and would only bring shame to her.
For this, she cried secretly countless times and studied hard in private, but she just couldn't understand the knowledge.
Fortunately, the young lady never despised her for her stupidity. Instead, she gave her private lessons and taught her in an easy-to-understand way.
After the young lady's explanation, she was able to quickly grasp the knowledge that was originally obscure and difficult to understand. After a month, she was no longer the worst companion girl, and the other maids no longer laughed at her. Instead, they praised her intelligence and ability to explain profound knowledge.
Hehe, how could they know that this was all because of the young lady’s private help.
Thinking back to those days of studying, Hua Chao couldn't help but smile.
During this period, she clearly felt that the young lady's personality and way of doing things had changed. At first, she was quite worried. After all, the young lady had experienced such a change and even hanged herself. She was afraid that the young lady would be possessed by some dirty things when she was weak.
But now it seems that the lady is still the same lady, except that her personality has changed a little after experiencing major changes in her life.
This is human nature, isn't it?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
